Monday, 30 August 2010

cyclemeter GPS track experiment

A little experiment today, using one of the iPhone GPS trackers whilst I took a short spin around part of tourist London.

I was really more interested in how the Cyclemeter iPhone software drew the route rather than exactly where I travelled. The phone was thrown into my backpack amongst car keys and various other electronic miscellanea, so GPS reception was far from ideal.

My start was by The Navigator in Belgrave Square and then out towards the eastern extension of King's Road before heading towards Westminster Abbey with views of Parliament, Big Ben the Eye and then around the back of Downing Street and past the Spitfire parked on the pavement.

The Mall is currently closed to traffic giving an easy run to Buckingham Palace which I did twice because it was quite fun zipping along such a deserted street, except for the roadblock quantities of tourists taking photos. Back past a busy Victoria station and then through a few twists around Eaton Square and back to where I started.

Only a few miles, mainly flat with thousands of tourist spots. A good example of how one of the London hire bikes could do simple sight-seeing in a matter of minutes.

Okay, so the map isn't perfect, but its not bad, and sufficiently good for anyone to be able to work out the route.

And, alright, I'll admit I was using my own bike today, but I did have to pump one of the tyres before I could start.